American Muslims raise more than $170,000 for San Bernardino families

On the afternoon of the San Bernardino shooting, a California doctor, who had helped found a health care and social services nonprofit, set up a fundraising campaign for the victims' families.

Dr. Faisal Qazi happens to also be a Muslim-American. But the role of his faith in his initial effort was only that his religion teaches him to help neighbors in need. He planned a modest community outreach, hoping to raise $20,000 at most.

But as the motives of the shooters became known, Muslim leaders locally and nationally suggested Qazi expand his campaign to unite all Muslims everywhere in support for the victims.

In the week since the massacre that killed 14 people at a staff gathering at the Inland Regional Center, the American Muslim-led campaign has raised $171,093. It was for several days collecting at a rate of about $1,000 an hour.

"We wish to respond to evil with good, as our faith instructs us, and send a powerful message of compassion through action," the fundraising page on the site LaunchGood reads.

Qazi said it was important to "send a message that Muslims feel emotionally and physically invested in our communities and our neighborhoods."

After an attack carried out by Muslim killers, the American Muslim community grieves for the loss of innocent life, but must also contend with defending themselves against the harassment and hostility that follows.

Tarek El-Messidi, a national Muslim leader in Knoxville, Tenn., was among those who encouraged Qazi to make his campaign broader. Through his nonprofit, Celebrate Mercy, he has organized similar Muslim-led outreach campaigns. In 2012, after the attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, El-Messidi called on Muslims to write condolence letters to the Stevens family.

He received almost 8,000 letters from Muslims all over the world. He presented them directly to Stevens's sister.

For American Muslims, it's frustrating to be grouped with "nutcases" who carry out attacks, claiming to be doing so in the name of Islam, he said.

"We're very frustrated because we want to grieve for the victims like any other human being would," he said. "We not only grieve, but have to fear for our safety."

Of course they condemn the violence, but being expected to do so can be insulting, he said, noting that Christians were not asked to condemn the attacks by the shooter at the Planned Parenthood Clinic in Colorado.

"To ask Muslims, 'do you condemn the killing of human beings,' it's like asking 'are you a human being?' " he said. "Yes, we do condemn blood being spilled."